The crisis-hit Japanese firm calls its own future into question as it says annual losses could top a trillion yen.

By James Sillars, Business Reporter

14:02, UK,Tuesday11April2017

Image:Toshiba's problems stem mainly from its US nuclear division, Westinghouse

Toshiba has warned its survival is at risk as it released delayed financial results showing huge losses that its auditors were unable to approve.

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"There are events and circumstances that may bring about significant questions about the idea of (carrying on) as a going concern," said the company in a statement accompanying the unaudited figures.

They showed a loss of 532.5bn yen (£3.9bn) in the nine months to December 2016 and suggested annual losses to the end of March were on track to come in at 1.1tn yen (£8bn).

The company, a colossus of corporate Japan with 188,000 employees globally, had been threatened with expulsion from the Tokyo Stock Exchange unless it met the extended deadline of Tuesday to file its accounts.

Image:Toshiba's president, Satoshi Tsunakawa, has apologised for the crisis

Financial regulators granted it more time on two occasions as Toshiba grappled with a series of problems at its Westinghouse Electric nuclear division, which filed for bankruptcy protection in the US last month.

The threat of Toshiba being delisted remains because auditors were unable to sign off the accounts.

Toshiba's troubles are also casting doubt over the planned Moorside nuclear power station in Cumbria, where it is due to provide the three reactors.

Image:A mock-up of the planned Moorside plant in Cumbria. Pic: NuGen

Toshiba announced a week ago that it had been forced to buy up a French utility firm's stake in the NuGen vehicle after it decided to pull out of their joint venture.

Toshiba has been gripped by whistleblower allegations of accounting cover-ups dating back to the financial crisis, while business has been hurt by cost over-runs and the Fukushima disaster in 2011, which prompted Japan and Germany to move away from nuclear technology.